Magnetic Bible & Snow White was stopped at the gates of Disneyland

The Island Club in collaboration with the Lemesos International Documentary Festival presents a program that will take place in both venues. Participating writer Sofronis Sofroniou (Magnetic Bible) and artists Johan Grimoprez, Joana Hadjithoma & Khalil Joreige, Pilvi Takala and Oraib Toukan (Snow White was stopped at the gates of Disneyland).

'MagnetIc Bible'
Sofronis Sofroniou

Following a trip to Indonesia early in 2018, nearly half of the footage Sofroniou recorded was destroyed due to a faulty USB stick. In the short film titled 'Magnetic Bible', he revisits techniques of memory reconstruction in an attempt to address one of Chris Marker’s key questions: “I wonder how people remember things who don't film, don't photograph, don't tape.”

Sofronis Sofroniou was born in Palechori, Cyprus. He studied Psychology in Nicosia and Neurosciences in New York. His first book, 'Oi Protoplastoi' (To Rodakio, 2015) received the Cyprus National Novel Award and the Award for Newcomer Novelist “Menis Koumantareas” of the Writers Association of Greece (2016). His second book is called 'Pig Iron' (Antipodes, 2017).

'Snow White was stopped at the gates of Disneyland'
Johan Grimoprez, Joana Hadjithoma & Khalil Joreige, Pilvi Takala and Oraib Toukan

Α program of four short films directed by artists Johan Grimonprez, (Raymond Tallis - on tickling, 2017), Joana Hadjithoma & Khalil Joreige (FIDEL, 2014), Pilvi Takala (Real Snow White, 2009) and Oraib Toukan (When Things Occur, 2016). Each film offers insight into how image and identity are manipulated, controlled and transmitted when one is faced with the unpredictable "οther".

Johan Grimonprez’s critically acclaimed work dances on the borders of practice and theory, art and cinema, documentary and fiction, demanding a double take on the part of the viewer. Grimonprez's curatorial projects have been exhibited at museums worldwide, including the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), the Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich) and MoMA (New York). His works are in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Ishikawa, Japan) and Tate Modern (London).

The filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige interweave thematic, conceptual and formal links through photographs, video installations, fictional films and documentaries. Their work is constructed around the production of types of knowledge, the rewriting of history, construction of imaginaries, and also around contemporary modes of narration. Their work has been collected and exhibited in private and public institutions and museums worldwide. In 2017 they were awarded the Marcel Duchamp Prize, after exhibiting the project 'Unconformities' at the Georges Pompidou Centre (Paris).

Pilvi Takala uses performative interventions as a means to process social structures and question the normative rules and truths of our behaviour in different cultural contexts. She graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2006 and from the residency program of Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (Amsterdam) in 2009. Her solo exhibitions include Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm), Kunsthalle Erfurt and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki) and Sorlandets Kunstmuseum (Kristiansand). Her work has been shown in MoMA PS1 and New Museum (New York), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Kunsthalle Basel (Basel), Witte de With (Rotterdam) and the 9th Istanbul Biennial.

Oraib Toukan is an artist and Clarendon Scholar at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. Until Fall 2015, she was head of the Arts Division and Media Studies program at Bard College at Al Quds University, Palestine. Recent exhibitions include the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Heidelberger Kunstverein (Heidelberg), Qalandia International (Palestine), The Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow, the Asia Pacific Triennial, the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), and the 11th Istanbul Biennale. She is author of 'Sundry Modernism, Materials for a Study of Palestinian Modernism', Sternberg Press (2017).

Curated by Denise Araouzou.

All works courtesy of the artists.

With special thanks to all participants, Helsinki Contemporary, zapomatik, Yiangos Hadjiyannis, Adrian Melis and Giorgos Sofroniou and Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre.

Opening: Magnetic Bible, 1 August 18:00-19:30, The Island Club
Duration: Magnetic Bible, 2-8 August 11:00-17:30, The Island Club
Screening: Magnetic Bible, 1 August 20:30, Evagoras Lanitis Centre, €2
Screening: Snow White was stopped at the gates of Disneyland, 6 August 22:30, Evagoras Lanitis Centre, €2